009: Making Buying Your First Home Easier with With Camilla De Cesare from HNTR

What if buying your first home felt clear, organised, and actually… manageable?For most people, the home-buying journey starts with excitement — scrolling Rightmove, booking viewings, imagining paint colours — and quickly collapses into chaos. Suddenly you’re drowning in spreadsheets, stamp duty calculators, survey reports, confusing estate agent jargon and endless to-do lists scattered across your phone.That overwhelming experience is exactly what pushed first-time buyer Camilla to build HNTR — the UK’s most user-friendly home-buying companion designed to turn complexity into clarity.What began as a personal tool to survive her own “monster spreadsheet” has become a beautifully designed app that guides buyers through every step of the journey: viewings, budgeting, comparing properties, understanding surveys, making offers, tracking every moving part — and even supporting the emotional side of it all through Scout, HNTR’s AI-powered support bot.HNTR isn’t just levelling the playing field… it’s quietly fixing a broken system where estate agents work for the seller — not the buyer.Key Takeaways:Estate agents work for the seller – HNTR works for the buyer.Most first-time buyers underestimate costs like stamp duty, surveys and legal fees.HNTR puts viewings, budgeting, offers and surveys into one clear, central place.Scout, HNTR’s emotional support bot, helps you handle the stressy bits.The app is 100% free, funded through referrals, with 10% of revenue donated to Centrepoint.Next up: home documentation, renovation tracking and a curated shop to help you kit out your place.Chapters / Timestamps:00:00 — Buying a first home: why is it so confusing?01:40 — Meet Camilla & the origin of HNTR04:00 — The crisis of viewings: photos, notes & chaos06:05 — Leasehold, surveys & the hidden traps buyers miss09:20 — Stamp duty & the costs no one tells you about11:10 — The survey red flags that actually matter12:40 — Why the system is stacked against first-time buyers15:00 — How HNTR works: viewings, budgeting, offers & more18:30 — Scout: the emotional support bot21:10 — Business model: how HNTR stays free23:00 — Giving back: the Centrepoint partnership25:30 — New features & the future of HNTR28:00 — Startup shout-out: Hi GuruLinks & Resources:Download the HNTR App: iOS | Android Follow HNTR: Website | TikTokFollow Discover Startups: TikTok | YouTube | Instagram | Newsletter

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